‘What was that just now?!’ The shock from the wound paralyzed Yuki for a sed. Blood painted across his left cheek stretg to his eye and mouth. Even if he had been allowed to move he would not have budged.

  His mind reeled through the events repeatedly. Each viewing didn't give him any more crity tha. ‘When did he attack me? I didn’t see anything!’ Yuki’s eye darted about trying to focus through the pain ba Katsu. ‘He’s one of those superhumans I created!’ It was that realization that something of his creation turned ba him that sank in deeply.

  Chapter 81 – Biting the Hand that Feeds

  “That’s the look!” Katsu shouted with glee in his voibsp; A sinister ugh escaped his lips. It was a ugh that grew and fed off of the pain of Yuki. It had only seemed to get darker the lohat he tinued reveling in the misery. “Yes, the look of despair is oruly relish.”

  ‘…he’s pying his part well…’ Yuki forced his head up, which had been hanging low on his neck, to try to get a clear view of Katsu. He o figure out ower it was that Katsu had.

  All he could see was just the same haze surrounding him as before. A sistent wind seemed to be blowing against Yuki's fabsp; The cool air made the gash, which began in the froween the end of the colr bone and joint at the shoulder back stopping a little before turning down his shoulder bde, in his shoulder sting sharply making him win his left eye. ‘…have to remain focused…’

  Katsu stepped forward, nearly ing in tact with Yuki with his proximity. The wretched grin on his face seemed to have developed into a perma feature. He grabbed Yuki’s fader the jaw to make sure they were eye to eye. “I see you weren’t lying when you said you had seen worse. A normal person would have been screaming tears after something like that. But you just grit your teeth and suck it up. Hearing your scream will be quite the pleasure for me.”

  “I’m not ied…but I know someohat would take you…up on that.”

  Anh ripped from Katsu's mouth. “I’m pleased to see you’ve still got plenty of spirit left!” Katsu removed his hand from Yuki’s jaw. He pressed his thumb into the wound, twisting it around waiting for a scream. The longer he was left not obliged the harder he pressed. A groan ulled out of Yuki, but nothing more as he endured.

  Haruo from across the street watched everything. ‘I 't do anything to stop this… He’s bee involved because of me… I o do something.’ Iween dodging attacks from the punks Haruo tried to get around them. He hoped that he could distract Katsu enough from Yuki to allow him to escape. Unfortunately, they weren't making it easy on him.

  Two of the boys made atempt to take hold of him, a tactic that seemed all too on for them. Both were simply avoided and put Haruo in the position he wao escape finally. ‘Now’s my ce…’

  Haruo broke from the group. It took them a few seds to realize that Haruo was actually trying to flee away from them. ‘Just have to reach Katsu now…’ He pushed his legs as hard as he could to reach Katsu in time before anything more was doo Yuki. The torture became increasingly sadistic with each sed that Haruo watched. He was still too far away. It had seemed like the distance was getting further away from him.

  ‘Almost there…’

  A slightly muffled ripping of cloth alerted Haruo, but it was too te for him to be stopped. He felt a shalloain rising up his leg as blood dripped from a sudden wound. Haruo stumbled over falling into the grass. As he fell he felt even more slices along the right side of his body. Pain washed over him from head to toe making it difficult to restrain. ‘What happeo me?! Did Katsu see me ing and do something?’

  The longer Haruo looked around the more he could see that Katsu was heavily engrossed in his torture of Yuki. Ahquake could have happened and leveled the entire pd Katsu would never have known the differenbsp; ‘No…it’s not him…then what?’ Haruo kept searg, seeking his answer in the grass. It had felt like the grass was sharp enough to cut him, but he khat did not make any sense. The grass o him blew about gently io all of the savageness .

  A single grass bde brushed against Haruo’s cheek leaving a thin cut. He had barely felt it, but the slowly dripping blood along his jaw made it clear to him. ‘The grass? But how?’ Haruo backed away until he realized that he was bumping intrass, as it surrounded him. However, this time it was not cutting him. He paused even lorying to uand. ‘Only some of the grass… What’s going on?’

  One of the punks that had been fighting with him appeared t over his fallen position. He smirked at Haruo with a knowing look in his eye. “Boss, didn’t say he was tah only oh powahs!”

  Haruo narrowed his expression, feeling that this fight had suddenly turned much darker for him. ‘A sed oh abilities…but what are they? Turning grass into bdes? That seems a little too specific to be right…’

  “Name’s Akihiro,” introduced the boy. The fident air about him was unmistakably thibsp; His eitude had ged from before. “I guess siah boss isn’t holdin’ back a’ymore I woher!”

  ‘Holding babsp; But what is his ability?’

  “I see from yer dumb look tha ya fus’d.”

  Iime that he was being given to recover by Akihiro, Haruo was able to stand back up. The pain in his leg was still stinging him, but it was not too deep to keep him from being able to run. It felt more like he had paper cuts that were increased in sharpness. ‘I should be grateful these guys enjoy hearing their own voice…’

  “Ya see I make a’ythin’ I want intah a razor sharp bde!”

  ‘So he make grass sharp enough to cut. That makes sense, but with so many things for him to turn into bdes I won’t be able to move…’

  “And I dun have tah touch ‘hem either.”

  ‘Activated by sight…that’s even worse… I won’t know when he ges it.’

  “An’ ‘cause tha ‘hole city fill’d with grass! There’s nowhere ya run!”

  Haruo stared grimly at his surroundings. ‘Hate to admit it, but he’s right…’ He had ainty where there could be bdes in the grass. The only fortunate part was that they hadn’t been enough to seriously injure him. He khat he could get past the pain with some effort.

  Akihiro stalked forward with a hungry look in his eye that seemed eager for the round of blood. They had been savage before, but it was different from before. The man wanted only blood anymore. It was the thirsty eyes of death. “So whacha gonna do?”

  In the break iion, it had given the rest of the teens that had beeing up him the time troup around Haruo. There was little room left for him to go anywhere. ‘If they’re all arouhough it’ll limit how he use his powers… I just have to keep wearing them down…’

  “Looks like he’s thinkin’ sumthin’,” joked one of the other boys to Akihiro.

  “Nah! That’s just fear yer seein’,” aeen spouted ign Haruo.

  “Whacha thinkin’ Akihiro?” questiohe third.

  “I’m thinkin’ more blood less talkin’!”

  “I like that, Akihiro!”

  “Let’s have sum fun!”

  Haruo was forced to take the fist to the cheek, but as the teen followed through with his arm he over extehe reabsp; The motion easily flowed through by Haruo to send him off bao the front line of the gang members. The ranks broke a little, but they simply pushed the stumbled kid aside to go after Haruo.

  He tried to back up, but razor sharp edges of the grass cut into his pants. ‘He’s made the grass behind me bdes so I ’t move…’ Haruo ged into a hardened defensive position pnning to take everything. The wave of attacks broke upon Haruo hard, but they only got blood from his previous cuts. They figured out quickly that Haruo wasn’t going to move and unleashed everything to break through his defense.

  Eventually, the pressure became too much for Haruo. His legs fell first against the bdes of grass. He colpsed on his bleeding back seeing the teenagers ing. There was a moment of crity for Haruh all of the deyed pain. ‘He’ll have to turn it off with them ing after me… I use that…’

  “Dun think fallin’ aing’ cut up’ll be enough for us!”

  ‘Have to move…’ Haruo waited until they were close enough that Akihiro would not have the time to reabsp; He took the first kick to the ribs and used some of the momentum to get him rolling out of the way until he could stand on his feet once more. ‘I’ll have a few seds…’ Haruo sprihrough the grass, soon feeling the bdes cut into him again, but he was already at his target. The property wall hem in the fight would give him safety. He mouhe wall quickly with his hands befetting his feet up out of the grass.

  There was a moment that he could take to breathe and look at the situation. ‘I’ve got to do something about Yuki… This is my problem and I o ha alone. He’s involved because of me and I ’t let that tinue.’

  While Haruo was in thought he suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his leg. “What?” He looked down to see a serrated silver bde protruding from the t shelf on top of the wall. Haruo jumped back to get the bde out of his leg only to see another appear where he was nding. Several more bdes of various design, size and shape burst from the surface at him f him to fall bato the property of the house. ‘I thought he could only make edges sharp.’

  Akihiro stepped into the grounds of the house, breaking the gate down with a sturdy kibsp; “Guess I fot tah mention I make bdes from a’ythin’ even if it’s just makin’ my own!” He let out a low snicker as he took aep forward casting a shadow over Haruo. The other boys soon joined, looking down from the top of the wall. They all looked like starved vultures just waiting for their meal to die.

  ‘…how do I survive against this…powers and abilities that aren’t human…’ The pain he had experienced in his leg from the real bde digging deep into his muscle was wholly different from everything else. He had been bruised and pummeled before even being cut and bled. However, they had always only been physical with him never bringing a on into the attacks. The feeling of the metal plunged so deep into his leg was only momentarily painful pared to the excruciating throbbing he was taking now. ‘I have to do…something…’

  Akihiro’s face darkened a little more as he grew more sinister. “I guess siha cat’s outta bag I’ll have my fun!” He raised his right hand pointing it at Haruo like he was reag or direg something. A moment ter a rge bde the size of a bastard sword erupted from the ground pierg Haruo’s leg. Blood sprayed up on the faces of the gang members making their hungry grins look even more wicked.

  Haruo coughed and released a dull, restricted scream as though his throat had never known a raised voibsp; The bde was soon gone from his leg, the tearing from it being forcefully removed hurting even more. He was grinding his fingers against the sidewalk tearing the nails and flesh apart fr to ehe pain. ‘…what I do…I’m powerless against this… It’s like they aren’t human anymore… Like they’ve been possessed by…the call of the blood…’ Haruo took another bde this time thin and narrow through his shoulder along with several short stabs in his back purposely missing vitals.

  His breathing began to bee ragged and drawn out nearly exhausted from the unfamiliar pain he was forced upon. ‘I o do something…but how… I ’t move and the pain’s too… much to bear anymore…’ Haruo blinked his eyes, seeing things looking blurry. ‘I’m going to pass out? Am I dying?’

  Suddenly Yuki’s voice echoed in his mind from earlier. ‘You don’t have to keep taking it from them! You’ve got the strength to protect yourself, use it! If you don’t they’ll just keep walking over you again and again! You said before that you were determio leave that life behind yht? Well your past is staring you dht now. You going to let your past trol you or are you going to trol your past!’

  ‘I don’t want to…take it, but I…’ Haruo couldn’t keep his body up any longer and fell ft against the ground. ‘I ’t fight babsp; It won’t solve anything…’ Yuki’s voice pounded in his head firmly again. ‘I…I…’ The bdes peing his body were almost a distant feeling to him. Everything seemed to be dulled out to Haruo. ‘…maybe… but I don’t have anything… I need… something… anything…I don’t want to be beaten down anymore…’

  Haruo clutched on to a broken piece of a pot that shattered from his fall. His hand tightened around it as he became desperate for anything. He wao put a stop to what was happening. It was his fight to deal with his way.

  Akihiro paused in his poking with his swords seeing Haruo beginning to look more lifeless. As he stepped forward to examine Haruo he felt a sudden invisible surge that pushed him back a little. He barely had a moment to look back at Haruo afterward when a light of pure white exploded from Haruo’s hand. The entire area was bathed in the light blinding everyone. “What’s goin’ on?!”

  “I ’t see anythin’?!”

  “Haruo?” Yuki said slowly fused through all of the pain he was f down.

  Akihiro stepped back by reflex. Near him he heard a blood curdling scream followed by a very sloppy spsh. “What’s happenin’?!” There was another scream leaving him panicked and fused. Akihiro frantically looked about in the blirying to focus on the screaming. “Guys?! What is it?!”

  When the light finally came to an end, Akihiro could finally see the horror. Two of the teens that had been on the wall were missing and a blood spray was left on the wall. The moment a low growl permeated the air setting everyone’s hair on end. It rimal growl that only khe w of nature. A rge transparent white tiger leapt over the wall and stood over Haruo in prote bearing its fangs at the boys.